Much risk of landslides that high up was not anticipated since the precipitation at that hight was in form of snow but it was raining much lower in the slopes. Much rainy weather began on the 9th of December and reached its peak on the 14th – 18th of December. Cumulative precipitation for those days was 569 mm but for the whole period it was 733 mm. It was not believed that much water was flowing on the ledges at Strandartindur, but water level gauges in the area were closely watched. At the beginning of the rain they rose rapidly, but then they became steady and it was believed that water was flowing away from the area and not accumulating. That is why the Icelandic Meteorological Office anticipated landslides like the first ones that fell, but the one that fell on December 18th turned out to be of a completely different nature. Preliminary studies have been made and they point to that the landslide reached deep into sediment layers that had been stable for thousands of years. Landslides such as this only fall every 1000 years or so.
Gunnar Gunnarsson. (2020, December 21st). Unlikely that a landslide of this magnitude
has fallen in that area for thousands of years (is. Ólíklegt að viðlíka skriða hafi fallið á
svæðinu í þúsundir ára). . Austurfrett. Retrieved from: https://www.austurfrett.is/frettir/oliklegt-adh-vidhlika-skridha-hafi-fallidh-a-svaedhinu-i-thusundir-ara.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office. (2020, December 22nd). The big landslide in
Seyðisfjörður is the biggest landslide to fall in a town or a city in Iceland (is. Stóra skriðan
á Seyðisfirði sú stærsta sem fallið hefur á þéttbýli á Íslandi). Retrieved from: https://www.vedur.is/um-vi/frettir/stora-skridan-a-seydisfirdi-su-staersta-sem-fallid-hefur-i-byggd-a-islandi.